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A Multnomah County grand jury has declined criminal charges against Portland Police Bureau Officer John Hughes, who shot and killed 30-year-old Brandon Keck during a suspected carjacking on Interstate 5 last year.
It’s the fourth time in the past year that a grand jury declined to indict a Portland police officer in a fatal shooting.
The grand jury’s “no true bill” finding is the latest development in a puzzling set of events that occurred Dec. 6. At about 10 am that day, PPB said, officers responded to reports of an armed suspect who was “involved in multiple carjackings” on I-5 near Rosa Parks Way. Police initially said the suspect had shot a victim who was being treated at the hospital for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.
Two days later, on Dec. 8, police announced that “the female victim who reported that she had been shot was not in fact injured by gunfire. They’re working to determine the cause of her injury.” PPB added that detectives believed the suspect may have been involved in other violent incidents before police intervened, but they did not specify what those incidents were.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office has not yet released grand jury transcripts, which should provide greater clarity about what transpired that day.